Emotional well-being and discrepancies between child and parent educational expectations and aspirations in middle and high school

Using data from a sample nationally representative of the United States (N = 1,115), this study investigates the association between emotional well-being and discrepant educational possible selves. Discrepancy is characterized as a mismatch between child educational expectations and parent educational aspirations for child or child educational aspirations for self. Age-related hypotheses are tested. Results suggest that middle school children who have expectations that don't match their parents' aspirations for them have lower well-being, and that among high school students, mismatch between a child's own aspirations and expectations is linked with lower well-being. Antecedents of discrepancies are explored: reading and math self-efficacy emerge as having small, but significant positive associations with well-being, partially mediated in middle school students by aspiration/expectation matches between parent and child.